Botanicals have been used for treatment of various human diseases throughout history and they play a role in disease prevention. Natural occurring agents, e.g., curcumin and resveratrol possess chemopreventive characteristics such as anti-inflammatory, cell-cycle modulator, antiangiogenic and antimetastatic activities that are in current ongoing clinical trials for various cancers. Elephantopus scaber L. is a traditional medicinal plant, which has been claimed for anti-cancer effects. Scientific reports have showed germacranolide sesquiterpene lactones (SLs), such as isodeoxyelephantopin, identified from the plant possesses anti-leukemia KBM-5 cell activity through potentiating tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α) mediated apoptosis. Deoxyelephantopin (DET), another SL from Elephantopus plant inhibited HeLa cell activity in vivo. Very recently, we demonstrated that DET possesses potent activity against mammary tumor growth and metastasis in syngeneic mice. Moreover, DET exhibits a more profound effect than paclitaxel on survival rate of mammary tumor-bearing mice; however, whether DET is efficacious for melanoma is unknown.
Melanoma is the most lethal form of skin cancer and an increasingly common cancerous disease worldwide. Despite recent advances, the outcomes of chemotherapy for patients with metastatic melanoma are remained unsatisfactory because of the relative drug resistance of metastatic cells and the low survival rates of cancer patients. Besides, chemotherapeutic drugs are usually cytotoxic with strong side effects. Cisplatin (cis-diamminedichloroplatinum(II), CP) is a first line chemotherapy drug, effective in the treatment of a wide variety of neoplastic diseases, such as ovarian cancer, head and neck cancer, testicular cancer, lung cancer, melanoma, etc. Unfortunately, it is also known that CP caused many adverse drug reactions, e.g., renal toxicity, gastrointestinal dysfunction, and peripheral nerve damage in cancer patients. It is estimated that the development of 30% of new drug candidates is halted because of unforeseen toxicity profiles and side effects in clinical studies. The pressing need for development of new therapeutic or preventive agents for melanoma has spurred the search for bioactive phytocompounds with novel modes of action or little side effects.
Therefore, a previously unaddressed need exists in the art to address the aforementioned deficiencies and inadequacies, especially in connection with development of antimelanoma phytocompounds with little side effects.